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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Outrage over last months decision by the European Union and 22 of its member nations In signing of ACTA has caused wide spread outcry, protests, hacked and defaced websites and legislators to back away from support of ACTA.

The ACTA protests that made Polish politicians wear Guy Fawkes masks in parliament is finally having a result. After considerable backlash in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has suspended ratification of ACTA. He stated that the consultation surrounding it was inadequate and that he approached it from a "20th century perspective."

The ACTA agreement has been signed already by an EU representative and ambassadors from 22 of the EU's 27 member states. However, due to its potential influence on criminal law, it also needs ratification by the governments of each of those member states. If even a single member state does not ratify, the agreement will not enter into force anywhere in the EU.

Luckily this is a very real possibility. About time too. (thanks to our friends in Europe!)
As protests grew, The Greek Ministry of Justice had their website defaced by Cypriot and Greek "Anonymous" affiliated hackers.

You can view a mirror of the defaced site hereThe video in the mirror has been removed but it stated that the Greek government had abandoned and ignored the democratic will of its citizens and giving in to the will of the IMF and EU.

They also warned that Greece had two weeks to "stop ACTA," and that if it failed to do so, some 300 sites would be defaced.

The next targets will include both media and ministry sites, with the hackers announcing that they already had passwords for most sites and that this was "JUST the BEGINNING"

The wearing of the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks by parliamentarians has also spread, with politicians in Bulgaria posing for photographs while holding the masks to their faces.

Others are also backing away from ACTA. On Tuesday, Helena Drnovšek Zorko, the Slovenian ambassador to Japan who signed ACTA, offered an explanation to why she signed. In a blog post, she claimed that signing was an act of "civic carelessness" that will limit the "future of our children," adding that she was carried out her "official duty" but had neglected to do her "civic duty."

ACTA protests are scheduled to take place in Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Saturday.

Its good that Poland rose its voice about it, but I doubt this is the end. The economic crisis in Europe can play a major role as a tool for passing ACTA in the union. Of course let us hope it will not happen.